‘‘He might be quick on his feet but he’s also showing signs of fatigue, so he should be slowing down soon. Killing him would be quicker, but capturing him and presenting him to the Minister would probably lessen the Minister's fury over the fact that we failed to protect Iokal.’’  

Out of the five guards that were in hot pursuit of Tatsumi, the one in front spoke, he was also the one who seemed to be the leader of the five and with the most experience of the bunch. 

In fact, the five weren’t just some random guards chosen by the Minister to protect his relative, their true identity were former disciples of the greatest school of martial arts in the empire, the Imperial Temple. 

The Imperial Temple was a school that trained students in a very deadly martial artist style called—Imperial Fist. 

A deadly style that allows their bodies to reach an inhuman state and become like a living weapon. Making them a powerful warrior that is valued by the Minister. And because of that, they were personally ordered by the Minister to guard his relatives. 

Originally, while being ordered to guard the relatives of the Minister they were having the time of their life, indulging and participating along with any and all hobbies Iokal has.

However, they didn’t expect their blissful lifestyle would end as quickly as it came. 

With the death of Iokal, even if they were skilled combatants from the Imperial Temple and were highly valued, with their failure to protect the relatives of the Minister. The Minister wouldn’t hesitate to order their death.  

So at this moment—the five guards felt extreme anger and hatred toward the assassin who had ruined their good life. 

In normal case, they would have torture, tearing him from limb to limb, and watching him scream out in anguish until he died to alleviate their anger. But they know that they could only cause injury to this assassin bastard in a superficial manner. 

The real torture that would be inflicted on this bastard assassin would be left to the Minister himself. 

As the five guards continued their relentless pursuit of their target, a long but short period of time went by in that manner.       

Even with the pitch-black night the five who have evolved their sense and eyesight after training in the Imperial Fist style, were able to perfectly perceive the current state of the assassin they are chasing. 

They were initially unable to get within 10 meters of the assassin because of how skillfully and swiftly he was moving. But after they had chased him relentlessly for a period of time, they could tell he was slowing down while hearing a slight panting noise from him.    

The guard in front sneered in disdain and grinned coldly. ‘‘Unlike us who have the capacity to run at our top speed for a long period due to our training, even if the assassin is skilled and quick on his feet he still can’t match us in stamina.’’ 

‘‘After we catch him, I’ll tear him to pieces!’’ 

‘‘Are you an idiot? We’re not supposed to do too much harm to him, those are left for the Prime Minister.’’ 

‘‘I know, I know, it’s just so hard at the thought of holding myself back after how this bastard basically ended our current enjoyable life!’’ 

After their leader was done talking, one of them spoke furiously with strong murderous intent leaking from him. Seeing how murderous his fellow guard was, another guard had to remind him that they couldn't kill the assassin.  

Even amidst their conversation among one another, the five guards didn’t let that stop them from their number one priority at this moment. The instant the assassin they were pursuing slowed down slightly, they directly hastened and breached the 10-meter gap distance. 

Allowing them to be only 7 meters behind him, a distance that wouldn’t be there for much longer either...   

After another short time, with the assassin rapidly becoming exhausted even further, the 7-meter gap decreased to 5 meters. And with this close contact, the five guards from the Imperial Temple could practically smell the assassin’s scent, as if he was mere inches away from them.   

‘‘Damn it! I’m reaching my limit…!!’’ The five guards could hear the assassin curse, panting breathless with exhaustion. To them, it looks as though the only reason he was even moving was because he was pushing himself out of fear of them.        

Upon witnessing the sight of the assassin’s face contorted with fear, the guard that previously spoke of tearing him apart laughed out coldly. ‘‘Continue to run in such a pitiful manner, the sight of your fear is exhilarating!’’ 

Hearing his provocative voice, the assassin gritted his teeth enough to squeeze out a creaking noise, which only made the guard that was speaking laugh louder, the rest were the same.

Being mocked over and over caused the assassin to become visibly angry, but being outnumbered from one to five, the assassin didn’t act upon the anger and just kept running. 

Another short time passed in that way. With the assassin pacing through trees, bushs, and maneuvered through many turns in a desperate attempt to shake off his pursuer. However, unfortunately with his limited stamina, after constantly running at top speed, instead of shaking off the pursuer—the pursuer were only getting closer.     

Eventually, after a long intense pursuit and being chased, the assassin and the five guards arrived at a wide-open field. Compared to the woods packed with trees that block off the moonlight, the wide open field was significantly brighter.      

And in the middle of the wide field was a Cherry Blossom tree with beautiful pink coloring flowers, with some falling and scattering amidst  the wind.   

After a long and intense run without a single breath of rest, the assassin being chased was thoroughly exhausted. Still, he ran but an unavoidable slip-up happened, the assassin trapped on a pebble…

And taking advantage of that small slip-up, the leader of the five guards grinned coldly and punched out with his fist. The strength contained in that punch was so strong and fast—it tore through the air and directly arrived at sonic-like force at the assassin.   

Noticing the fist that was about to land on him, the assassin's gaze seemed to widen in fear. In a desperate attempt to save himself against the punch, the assassin deftly twirls his body around and barely manages to avoid the powerful punch. 

However, despite his quick and skillful movement in dodging the blow, the air pressure in the leader of the five guards’ fists still caused a cut across the assassin's cheek and blew his hoodie off… revealing a young facial feature underneath. 

The young man had brown hair and an average-looking face that was neither ugly nor handsome. His eyes were a beautifully emerald green color, and when gazing at the five guards it revealed fear. 

‘‘Hah hah hah... Damn!’’ The young assassin panting heavily and uttered through gritted teeth. 

‘‘So it turns out our little assassin is nothing more than a little brat. Well, kid, we might not be able to kill you but I’ve changed my mind about not hurting you too much. I’ll show you the world of adults by letting you experience the most excruciating pain of your life to pay for your crime.’’

The leader of the five guards clutched his knuckle, eyes burning with rage when gazing at this young fellow who had ruined their good life.  

The rest of the guards were also equally boiling with uncontrollable rage when gazing at the young assassin. 

They seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that they shouldn’t hurt him too much since the punishment for killing Iokal was for the Prime Minister to decide—to alleviate the anger of his relative's death. 

A brief instant after the leader of the five guards' voice rang out, his body suddenly blurred and disappeared in a quick motion and directly reappeared right in front of the assassin. And before the young assassin could begin to react, his fist raised and struck down.  

The young assassin let out a gasp of shock, filled with fear at the impending danger about to strike down on him. 

Although that seems to be the case, but unnoticeable to the five guards, hidden deep within those layers of fear was a calm and deep coldness enough to freeze even the flames of the underworld.     

Right when the leader of the five guards fist was an inch or two away from him, something unexpected occurred that arose an awful feeling within the heart of the leader of five guards. 

The young assassin who was previously looking at the five guards with fear became dreadfully still while calmly tilting his head sideways to avoid the punch, shocking the guard’s leader. And what comes after that directly causes his heart to sink...              

With loud binging noise ranging from beyond the wide open field, two consecutive bright beams of light—looking the same as the one that killed Iokal—shot toward the two guards behind the guard leader.   

With incomparable speed that leaves no room for dodging, especially when they weren’t aware of it previously because of how unexpected it was, two guards were immediately killed instantly.

Their heads were shot through with ease, spewing forth blood while their body directly collapsed to the ground.  

However, because of their teammate's sudden death, before the remaining three guards could process the fact that they were led into a trap by the young assassin…

The young assassin who previously looked frail and weak before them—suddenly burst forth with great power and struck out. Still taken aback by the sudden turn of events, the guard leaders weren’t able to notice before it was too late. 

Boom! But even if his attention wasn’t somewhere else, he still wouldn’t have been able to avoid it. The young assassin’s fist which had struck out was too fast for even the naked eyes to perceive. 

The guard leader's body was lifted from the ground and sent flying dozens of meters away with that single punch without being able to muster any form of resistance.        

‘‘Fuck! It was a trap!!’’

‘‘Damn it! It’s too late to run now, we have to kill this brat first then go after the sniper hiding.’’ 

The remaining two guards both said, realizing that the situation had turned away from their favor.

In truth, it was not that these guards hadn’t noticed that something was wrong from the very beginning when they were chasing the young assassin. After all, as long as one thinks clearly they would be able to figure out that something wasn’t right from the beginning…

The assassin they were chasing wasn't a sniper user if one noticed how there was no long-range weapon on him, suggesting that the one who killed Iokal wasn’t exactly him and must be his partner or something. 

Another thing that would allow one to understand that something was not right from the very beginning was the fact that—the young assassin wasn’t exactly subtle when escaping. 

The thudded noise he emitted when running amidst the dark woods was like directly telling them to find him.

Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t have fallen for an obvious trap like that easily. 

But because of the hatred over their great lifestyle being ruined by the assassins, and adding to the fact that if they weren’t able to at least catch one of them, they would face death by the Minister because of failure to protect his blood relative.  

Not to mention their confidence in their strength stems from the fact that they were high-ranking disciples of the Imperial Temple.  

Because of all those factors, they have discarded any cautiousness.

…

Tatsumi wipes away the blood dripping from the cut wound he received from the wind pressure contained in the guard's leader's fist. He then pulled out his sword from the sheath and coldly gazed at the two remaining guards with murder.   

The instant he pulled out his sword, the two guards burst forward with astonishing speed. However, instead of both coming directly at him, they split from each other—One moving to his left and the other on his right. 

Tatsumi could easily tell that by doing this—they were trying to cut off his movement by attacking from both sides at the same time. 

Although with their skill and strength, Tatsumi didn’t believe he could lose or even have trouble with these two, he would still have been slightly more cautioned against their teamwork if he was alone... 

But he wasn’t alone… the teammate hidden away has his back.  

Only after a foot or two away from him, as the guard who had moved to attack from his right was about to launch a rapid punch towards him—a bright beam of light shot out in his direction. 

Facing the beam that had already taken away the lives of two of his teammates, the guard gritted his teeth, not hesitating to distance himself back in order to avoid ending up like them.

However, in a split-second that had happened and the guard moved back to avoid death, Tatsumi took advantage of that and bolted with blinding speed toward his left. 

His intent was obvious… he was going to take advantage of the moment to directly kill the other guard.   

‘‘S-shit!’’  

Seeing the speed at which Tatsumi was moving his way, the guard felt danger and couldn’t help but spit out a curse. But maybe out of confidence or disdain toward his opponent, the guard didn’t choose to back off, he instead chose to face the assassin head-on with his fist. 

In less than a second, the guard punched out more than twice with his tough steel-like fists. Each punch was powerful enough to stir the air and cause a roaring noise, but unfazed by such an attack, Tatsumi deftly dodged the punches and entered the range where the opponent and he were but a foot or two away from each other.   

Despite having a much smaller stature than the guard, when Tatsumi’s cold gazes stared right into the guard's eyes, the guard flinched in fear of the young assassin.

Tatsumi’s sword, already in a position to land a finishing and fatal blow on the opponent, immediately thrust forward with no hesitation. 

‘‘!!!’’ Beads of cold sweat formed on the guard as a dooming sensation consumed his entire being when he saw the sword thrust headed his way. 

And out of either desperation or instinctively on his part or both, the guard raised his arms to guard against the thrust, praying they would be able to stop the attack somehow.   

However, just when the sword was about to reach the guard who could only pray for a miracle in fear—the tip of the sword in his line of sight and the young assassin suddenly vanished, as if the entire thing was but an illusion. 

Phew~ However, in the midst of his short but heavy relief. The voice of his comrade loudly screams at him... 

‘‘Behind you!!’’ 

‘‘Wha—’’ 

Behind the guard, a young man with cold green eyes swung his sword in an arc. And with that swing, a head flew through the air with gapped eyes and a trail of blood following it.  

‘‘Damn it! This bastard is far too fast! Forgetting about fighting him, I'm outta here!!’’ The guard who had been scared away by the bright beam of light shooting at him, said, expressing his terror at seeing his teammate being beheaded so quickly.    

One had to know that his sudden deep fear for Tatsumi was not unfounded. 

First, his leader was knocked dozens of meters away, and his life or death was unknown. Second, in the few seconds that he was forced to back away because of a bright beam of light shooting at him, his teammate was already beheading. 

Realizing the gap in his opponent's strength and him, the guard felt fear creep through, and… he didn’t hesitate to turn and run.

However, while he was turning tail to run away, because of not thinking straight out of fear. Not noticing that distance away out of the wide open field, a pair of cold gazes had already set its eyes on him.               

With a ranging bang, a bright beam of light shot off from afar. And this time without fail, hitting its mark and shooting right through the head of the guard running away in fear. 

Killing him instantly!  

‘‘Maybe injured, but the other one shouldn’t be dead yet with just that punch.’’ Seeing the guard running away and being killed by Mine already, Tatsumi narrows his eyes, turning his attention onto the one he sent flying.

Not wasting a single breath, Tatsumi bolted toward the maybe unconscious leader of the guard, who still had not gotten up after being sent flying by him. 

The guard leader's body remains unmoved as Tatsumi rapidly closes on it with murderous intent brimming in his eyes. The sword within his hands flashes with a steel-like glow, ready to plunge down on the enemy the instant he steps into the range where he could. 

But as he was about to enter the range where he could do such a thing, the unmoved body that was previously still without a single twitch suddenly jumped out from the ground, and… With blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, the guard leader's eyes were bloodshot as he tried to fiercely pounce down on Tatsumi's small frame with his large body.   

‘‘Died, you damn bastard!!’’  

Beholding the fast and large figure trying to pounce down on him, becoming like a giant mountain in his view, Tatsumi's expression remains calm. He then springs up to avoid the guard leader's grab, spins in midair, and swings his sword in a swift action.  

‘‘Ahhhhh!!’’ 

The guard leader cried out in pain as both his arms were directly separated, detaching from his body while a vast amount of blood spewed out, dyeing the grass red.  

Gracefully landing back down on the ground, before choosing to land the finishing strike that would end this whole brief but intense fight with the guard member, Tatsumi couldn’t help but taunt his enemy a little. 

‘‘Your last-moment tactics were just like Ogre but compared to him who seemed like a fierce beast yours were like the actions of an old and weak feeble granny. Did that one punch cause that much damage to you for you to become this desperate and weak? Pathetic.’’     

‘‘You!! I’ll kill you!!!’’  

 

However, his words would only remain just that as his head was directly cleaved off from his body. 

Tatsumi watched coldly as the body reached the ground, creating a pool of blood around it.

For these types of people, he couldn’t feel a single remorse in his heart for—in his mind; they all deserve to die.   

At the same time, the accumulating anger that occurs because of today in the execution ground—eased a bit.